During a surgical procedure, fluids and other debris often fill the surgical site. The fluids and debris may obstruct the view of the targeted anatomy, as well as increase the risk of surgical site infection if not properly removed. Surgical site irrigation and cleaning are regularly performed during the surgical procedure to limit the aforementioned problems. In particular, joint arthroplasty is a surgical procedure to modify an arthritic, degenerated, or damaged joint with artificial components to improve the patient's quality of life and mobility. A joint replacement procedure is generally characterized by modifying the affected joint with a series of bone cuts to precisely receive artificial components, illustratively including plates, screws, knee implants, hip implants, and shoulder implants. During the bone modification, bone chips and bone debris are generated that need to be removed to reduce the risk of infection and improve post-operative healing.
Computer-assisted surgical systems have been developed to aid surgeons in creating the bone cuts to precisely receive the implant components. The high speed cutting instruments associated with the surgical systems may cause the bone debris to contaminate the operating area. When the depth of cutting is close to surface of the bone (where cortical bone is present or proximal), the risk of contamination is higher compared to cutting bone in a deeper cavity such as within the femoral canal. In addition, the bone debris generated during cutting may collide with the cutting tool and block the surgeon's view and thereby cause an interruption of the procedure. An accumulation of debris may also lead to a loss of accuracy in programmed cuts. Currently, various suction, irrigation, and wound cleansing devices are used to clear the fluids and other debris from a surgical site, and are usually manually controlled and operated by a medical assistant alongside the surgeon at the operating site. However, when an autonomous, semi-autonomous, or haptically controlled computer-assisted device is preparing the bone, it is often difficult to manually suction and irrigate the area due to the computer controlled movements of the system. Additionally, any suction or irrigation device placed on the cutting tool may inadvertently contact and damage surrounding soft tissue. The same holds true for any manually operated instrument such as an oscillating saw, surgical drill, and the like.
Thus there is a need in the art for a suctioning system that can efficiently clear debris in the operating site during a procedure that accounts for the operational movements of a surgical tool. There is a further need for a suctioning system that can be assembled directly to a surgical tool that accounts for any collisions with surrounding soft tissue.